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Vancouver’s BroadbandTV opens New York office to get closer to Madison Ave. dealmakers

BroadbandTV is opening its branch plant in midtown Manhattan to be closer to where marketing decisions are made. “That’s where all the ad dollars are,” says Lewis Ball, BBTV’s vice-president of professional services. (FMB Photo/Getty)

BroadbandTV, the Vancouver-based company dedicated to monetizing web video content on behalf of its creators, is opening a branch office in midtown Manhattan to be closest to where marketing decisions are made.

“That’s where all the ad dollars are,” says Lewis Ball, BBTV’s vice-president of professional services. The company operates the third largest multi-channel network on YouTube, with a 2.5 billion impressions (views, basically) per month. Its number of impressions increased 150% in the 13 months from August 2013 to September 2014, and revenues have been tracking “in the same ratio,” Ball says.

The web may be borderless—and YouTube is far and away the leading web video site in the Americas and Europe—but the money that supports it is not. For that reason BBTV employs consultants working with advertisers and agencies worldwide. On top of that, “a local presence is really important in certain communities and New York is one of them,” Ball says. The plan is to set up similar bases in other major markets such as Brazil.

In addition to sales, the New York office will host the company’s branded entertainment division, which brokers deals between content creators and major brands. In contrast to conventional TV, a lot of web content creators face high expectations for integrity from their audience; an inappropriate sponsorship will provoke an instantaneous reaction from fans. The branded entertainment group therefore aims to pair creators and sponsors with matching values in a way that Google Adsense simply doesn’t.

BBTV is also hiring in Canada; the company reports an 83% increase in its head count in the last 18 months, bringing the total to 130. In 2013, the company was the recipient of a $36-million investment from European broadcast network RTL Group.